Study Questions for Metals
1. What is a crystal and what does that have to do with metals?
2. How is a metallic bond different from an ionic bond? Discuss the role of valence electrons.
3. Often metals have impurities in them. What do the impurities do to the structure?
4. How can atoms of metal slip into a new position? Use diagrams.
5. What is a slip plane?
6. How do metals bend? Use diagrams.
7. Why is metal heated before hammering or shaping?
8. What caused the Titanic to sink so quickly? How does that relate to the phrase “In steel there is
a trade-off between hardness and toughness”?
9. Compare the structure of a windshield to the structure of a samurai sword.
10. How does the structure of the samurai sword reflect the Japanese culture?